One year in, has USAID moved the needle on its A&A strategy?

One year after releasing a new acquisition and assistance strategy, the U.S. Agency for International Development has said it is making progress toward the goals, strengthening its workforce while obligating a record $38.1 billion across the globe. Still, some warn that these are just incremental changes — and far from a silver bullet. “I’m still not seeing the needle move, and this is what I do for a living: help people get resources from [USAID],” said Charles Pope, a former senior contracting officer for USAID who now leads Pope International, which focuses on international development contracting. The Office of Acquisition and Assistance, often referred to as A&A, awards grants and contracts for development and humanitarian projects. In many ways, the A&A office is the lifeblood of the agency, guiding more than 85% of USAID’s funding. But like many offices across USAID, for years, the A&A team has been struggling. There’s been staffing shortages and surging workloads, administrative burdens, and localization challenges. Despite that, the agency’s latest annual report shows the office is beginning to make progress on one of the most critical barriers it faces; 27 new civil service contract specialists joined the A&A ranks in 2023, the annual report stated, while the number of cooperating country nationals — local staff hired by the agency — with the authority to administer contracts jumped from 19 to 48 in just one year. That’s 10 more staff members than the agency’s target for the past year. The staffing boost is vital because the A&A office’s new strategy is headlined around empowering and expanding the team’s workforce. “[Staffing] is something that I’m not going to be able to solve overnight, but it is central to our agency’s success,” Jami Rodgers, the new head of USAID’s A&A team, told Devex in a recent interview. Outside observers welcomed the changes. “This is a mindset change that says, yes they’re local staff, and yes, they’re excellent,” said Justin Fugle, the head of U.S. government policy at Plan International. “These numbers grew by 250%, and what else increases like that in government? Nothing.” Still, some aren’t as optimistic as Fugle about the jump — and Pope, for one, said the increase doesn’t necessarily solve the staffing problems faced by the A&A office. “So a bunch of FSNs [foreign service nationals] got warrants. But what portion of that did it take off the workload?” said Pope. “Do the FSNs really want these warrants?” In the past, Pope said, a warrant had sometimes involved increases in responsibility but not increases in rank, or pay, and had therefore not always been welcome. Still, he agreed it’s a start — and ultimately, better than no change at all. The office also seems to be inching forward on the strategy’s other two objectives — making the A&A process more efficient through new tools and working with a more diverse set of partners to implement locally led solutions — though all three are still a work in progress. To streamline A&A systems, the team had planned to implement automotive processes, utilize artificial intelligence, and plan more strategically to make the system more effective and efficient. Throughout 2023, a slice of those goals became a reality: USAID created templates, documentation, and toolkits to better organize contracting officers’ work. Critically, there were also efforts to feed into the agency’s larger ambitions to localize. The WorkwithUSAID platform, which provides guidance and funding opportunities online, saw expansions throughout the year. That includes a new forum for partnership opportunities, where USAID’s prime partners can post subaward opportunities for local organizations; and a live feed to alert organizations of other funding rounds. Resources are now available in nine different languages, the report stated, and additional enhancements, resources, and tools will be added to the platform in the months to come. The team also revised eligibility documentation that in the past has barred smaller organizations from applying for USAID funding in the first place — a change the A&A team hopes will lead to new, grassroots groups getting involved with the agency. USAID’s hope to shift grantmaking to smaller organizations also ties into U.S.-based businesses. Following suit with the Biden-Harris administration, which has urged federal agencies to steer more procurement dollars to small businesses, USAID had prioritized working with such companies alongside their regulars. Small businesses still take home just a fraction of USAID’s procurement dollars. But still, last year, the agency surpassed its target by 1.5%, obligating approximately $985 million to U.S.-based small businesses. “I remain optimistic about the total obligated dollar amount, and about USAID trying to work with more new partners,” said Mike Shanley, the founder of Konektid, which helps organizations work with USAID. “The more we can lower the barriers to entry for the procurement process the better, so that funding can go toward who has the best performance versus who best understands the procurement process.”